Readers will say goodbye to belly fat permanently by syncing up their circadian rhythm and other body cycles to make weight loss easy.Most women spend their entire lives fighting their bodies in an effort to lose weight. The latest research reveals that women need to work with their bodies to get the best results. It turns out there are actually right and wrong times to eat, exercise, and sleep—and what works for one woman may not work for the next. The Belly Melt Diet from the editors of Prevention teaches women to tune into their own rhythms—not just their sleep/wake cycles, but also the cycles of their hunger hormones. They will also learn the optimal time to exercise, and how to tame the ups and downs of the menstrual cycle to maximize belly fat–burning and overall metabolism boosting.The simple 2-phase diet plan teaches women how to eat, exercise, and sleep at their best with over a hundred easy and delicious fat-burning recipes, The Perfect Timing Workouts, and the newest research in chronobiology, the study of body rhythms. Real women who tried the Belly Melt Diet lost up to 19 pounds in just 5 weeks and embarked on a slimming, energizing, revitalizing lifestyle that will stay with them for good.

Most helpful customer reviews

This would be OK for some different recipes but not a plan I would be able to stick to mostly because of the exercising twice a day they recommend. Most people find it hard with 3 times a week. I thought this was unrealistic.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)

Good information but if you read prevention magazine, this is a recap.March 23 2013

By
Lori Grayson
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Kindle Edition

My husband suggested this book after watching a segment on the Rachel Ray show. I read it and none of the information was new. Eat whole unprocessed foods. Sleep. Turn off all devices by 9pm. Phase 1 is 3 days where you eat 1200 calories a day. Servings are 4 whole grains, 2-3 servings of veggies, 1 fruit, 2-3 low fat dairy, 3-4 protein, 1 serving of oil. Phase 2 is 1500 calories a day, add a grain and whatever else to get there. Walk in the am for 20 min, do some sort of strength training a few days a week in the pm. That is it in a nutshell. It didnt require a whole book for that info.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

Sleep leads to weight loss?March 22 2013

By
Joanna Daneman
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Kindle Edition
Verified Purchase

The "Belly Melt" diet not only talks about what to eat, it gives you a quiz about your sleeping habits, so you can harness your body's natural hormones to help you lose weight. The opening chapter discusses some of the research; it's been known for years that shift workers have digestive problems; night eaters tend to be more obese (of course, not all, because some people are natural night owls.) When you eat, how regularly you eat and what you eat can help you harness your natural weight loss abilities and also give you the upper hand against the body's natural tendency to NOT want to give up pounds in the face of what it views as "starvation."

If you don't like reading science stuff, you can skim over words like "leptin" and "ghrelin" but do read the chapters to find out why you should sleep more (possibly) eat at certain times and follow this advice. For example, do you get hungry the same time every day, no matter how much you've eaten, say for breakfast? (I do. I'm hungriest at lunch, and that has been true my entire life.) And I am a "lark" meaning, I get up early. I've learned before I read this book, if I want to maintain my weight, eat my biggest meals before the afternoon. There are several questionnaires in the book to help you figure out your natural cycles and also figure out your sleeping patterns. Sleep is the key to this weight loss system. Sleep is when certain hormones rise and fall, and managing these hormones is, according to the author, the key to stimulating your body's natural weight loss ability.

If you are on a crazy schedule, or don't like to shop for food and cook, this book may NOT be for you. You may find you are better off with a prepared food regime or a point-counting system where you can eat out or eat pre-made food and still watch what you are doing. But the advice on time of day still could help you.

Another assist to this book could be the BodyMedia LINK Armband Weight Management System because it will tell you how long you slept and how well and also how much movement you did each day, and record the data. I found out I don't sleep very much or very well--a problem to maintain weight. There is a lot about sleep here and belly fat. For example, a lack of sleep seems to make people hungrier, and levels of one hormone that causes fat retention (ghrelin) is elevated. Chronic sleep deprivation (sleeping less than the optimal hours for your particular physiology) is associated with diabetes, cardiac disease, and (big surprise) bad tempers. The author even discusses the LIGHT LEVEL in your bedroom; blocking out as much light as possible (dark curtains, eye masks) can stimulate sleep hormones like melatonin and assist with weight loss. Who knew?

The book also lists foods good for sleep and good for suppressing cravings. It also discusses menopause, a time when women gain a lot of weight and have difficulties sleeping. Yes, there is a lot about sleep in this book, but it could really help your overall health, not just your weight.

The recipe chapter has breakfasts, lunches, dinners. The recipes feature certain carbs or proteins (like fatty fish) and you could use them as guidelines--need a salad with fish? What about fibrous carbs and protein? The breakfasts are things like oatmeal with fruits or omelets with vegetables, you get the picture. After you figure out what to eat, when, you can probably use these as templates for your own ideas. I liked a lot of the recipes such as tostadas and quesadillas.

Summary: good science behind this weight loss method, but it requires attention to timing, sleeping, food choices and cooking meals, so it may not fit your lifestyle. However, if you have been stuck while eating correctly and still not losing, this may be the key to success. For the record, changing up some meds, then following a regime of eating early and not after 6pm, I lost about 25 lbs.

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful

Belly melt dietSept. 25 2012

By
Akhippiechic
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Hardcover
Verified Purchase

The book has some interesting info on sleep and managing it as well as how it affects the body. Overall I found the book to be a poor guide for weight loss. It felt like it was a sickly thrown together conglomeration of many diet books with a central theme of managing stress and sleep. I am sorry I spent money on it

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

Very informative!Oct. 24 2012

By
Laly
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Hardcover

I learned a lot with this book, I can't tell you that by reading it I lost 15 pounds or that I followed strictly the diet! But I did a lot of changes to my lifestyle, specially to my sleep schedule and the types and quantities of food I eat at certain times of the day, and it has helped me lost 5 pounds so far! Not as fast as I would like, but I'm still loosing weight. And I feel much better, specially because I am making sure I have a nice 7 hours or more of sleep every night.

Recipes is what I love the most, easy, delicious and healthy! It's an overall easy to read book, great guide to help you loose weight in a healthy way. I like that is not restrictive like others I have tried before, in which I could not eat this or that type of food, making my options short and difficult.

Would definitely recommend it!

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful

belly melt dietOct. 7 2012

By
joe
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Hardcover
Verified Purchase

book is to long and too complicated ,menus are good if you have a full time chefto cook and prepare all the meals ....should be called the great belly diet if your rich and can employ the kitchen staff!@!